CausePlanet Blog

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Everyone loves a good story

Why do we continue to write boring fundraising materials and grant proposals that ask for our readers’ stamina rather than their enjoyment? Storytelling isn’t a fad. It’s here to stay and will remain the preferred way we learn information.

Some of the most memorable fundraising materials I worked on in my past life as a development director were the pieces that involved telling a unique story about why a donor supported the university. One campaign in particular, we asked donors to vote for his/her favorite professor with a donation and a story about the instructor. The gifts came pouring in that year because people love to tell a good story as much as they like to hear one.

Storytelling and development collateral can intersect in the following ways:

The elevator speech can use an effective hook. An elevator speech can be translated into a powerful, concise, revised version of your mission statement.

A grant proposal for general operating support can serve as an agency’s internal case statement. External case statements must tell compelling, emotional stories.

Appeal letters have the most obvious connection to storytelling because they need to be vivid and persuasive for people to donate.

In a brochure, the stories can be complemented by visuals.

Your web site should tell your organization’s story.

Annual reports, in addition to providing evidence for the agency’s financial health, present another opportunity to relate your story.

Even though government grant applications are longer and more structured, you can still infuse stories into the need or problem (antagonist) and the objectives sections.

If you keep the storytelling approach in mind, you can use it whenever possible, including in sections about your credibility or the sustainability of your program. However, storytelling is not always appropriate given the space limitations and formal tone of government applications. With more practice, you will know when it is appropriate and when it isn’t. Even though some parts of grant writing are technical, such as the goals and objectives section, persuasive writing can transfer to many careers, including marketing, technical writing, journalism, speechwriting and more.

It’s chock full of useful techniques for nonprofit communications of any kind-from newsletters and appeals to annual reports and, of course, grants. Our interview will touch on Clarke’s book and much more through our interview questions.

4 responses to “Everyone loves a good story”

When we ask ourselves why we love the organizations we love, the answer is because we have heard an amazing story and want to be a part of creating more stories like that. No one gets engaged by spreadsheets and fact, the heart needs to be touched over and over.